Bola Ikulayo Quotes

The biography brings to limelight my contributions to my environments and the extension of my service to the National and the International/ World Sporting Organisations and the academic world at the tertiary education level.”

I want to help my nation. I want to help the athletes to appreciate their own potentials. One of the ways to do this is to know themselves and to learn some psychological skills and attributes that will make them excel and enhance their performance.

I founded the Sports Psychology Association of Nigeria (SPAN) in June 1985 to coincide with my month of birth, and also to coincide with the foundation of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) which is approximately twenty years older than SPAN. The association was founded as my contribution to sports development.

I thank God for my upbringing. I grew up with boys. There was a lot of challenges. For you to be acknowledged, you have to work twice as hard as a man and as a foreigner. If you are of an average ability, nobody will notice you among the multitude. You have to shine and surpass all others to be noticed or acknowledged. This was a big drive for my striving for perfection all the time. No half measure. That was what happened in England. In Nigeria, I had to work twice as hard as my men folks to get to where I got today. It had been sheer hard work. I never beg, cringe or scheme for anything. People say I’m proud. I am not proud, but I believe in myself. I don’t depend on people. I knew I have to work hard all the time, and that is the motto of my life. Do your best at all items. And that is what sustains me. I also know that God is on my side at all times.

In fact ISSP has done a lot in my life.

Education would become the instrument of my liberation.

When I was young, I wanted to be a great person. I also wanted to avoid things that happened to my parents. There and then, I made up my mind that if I ever get married, I won’t live apart; I won’t quarrel. Whatever is the problem I would stomach it.